Are you a practitioner who believes in providing a high-quality support that ensures that the child is at the heart of everything we do? Our Breathing Space team within the Edge of Care Service, are passionate, creative, supportive and highly motivated and have a wealth of experience, knowledge and skills in delivering tailored packages of support. In Staffordshire we are committed to supporting children to return home after a period of being cared for, you will predominately be supporting children aged 0-18 to be re-unified home and will work with families that are referred into the Intensive Prevention Service and Breathing Space. We also support parents who have previously had one or more children removed from their care and are pregnant again and whilst our main focus is to support with re-unification there maybe opportunities to support expectant parents. Based in Stafford, working across the county on occasions when practitioners may have to travel out of Staffordshire to complete home visits. It is important that you have significant experience and understanding of early years, child development, working with children/young people and their families within their own homes delivering a variety of interventions/direct work to address presenting issues. Main Responsibilities You will: Work with children and young people, their families, and carers to maintain positive relationships, providing high support and high challenge to effect changes in family dynamics to promote stability at home Work weekends on a rota basis and in an evening to support the children and families that you are working with Work restoratively with families, offering an intense and robust package of support delivering practical and evidenced based interventions to ensure parents are equipped with skills to safely parent Take responsibility for the accurate recording of all work undertaken on the electronic file in keeping with the agreed timeframes within Breathing Space/Futures Matters You will participate in all team meetings (Wednesdays), training, the duty system and in developing the service Transport and attend groups with parents as and when required. Develop and review plans of interventions, attend statutory meetings, providing reports for courts as and when requested The Ideal Candidate You will need to have a positive attitude and the ability to work in a solution focussed way with families. You will be a good team player who is passionate about identifying appropriate interventions for children and families. You will also: be passionate and motivated to support children to remain living with their family have a level 3 NVQ or equivalent qualification relating to children and families. be able to evidence supporting children and their families within their homes, delivering direct work and being creative in the way that you work to engage children and their families to enable them to remain or return to the care of their family. Or have experience of working in a statutory/voluntary environment which provides services to vulnerable children and their families. have demonstrable evidence of working restoratively with families building on strengths, relationships and promoting resilience. have access to a car at all times where mileage and an essential car allowance is paid as required. Interviews will take place at Staffordshire Place 1 on the 21 February 2024. For more information about this vacancy or for an informal chat please contact Kirsten.boothstaffordshire.gov.uk or 07815 999066 This role is currently subject to a review of weekend working arrangements, including any paid enhancements. Our Recruitment Process: We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role. About Staffordshire County Council We are no ordinary county council: Our Values: The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively. Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy: We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future. We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too. Our benefits: We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance. In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire Our recruitment process: As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post. As you’ll know safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our children and young people/vulnerable adults is important to us and that’s why this position is subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service. If applicable you should disclose details of unspent and unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions and convictions in your application form.